How to know a good property manager

If you've been doing some thinking about hiring a property management company to help ease the burden of management from your shoulders, you've probably been doing a bit of research on them. You've likely heard wild stories on both ends and some that you might have wondered if they were even true. Perhaps one property management company has a reputation of holding down the numbers and making everything fit just like you felt like you couldn't. Fantastic! Make sure to check their references. They're a business and you're hiring them to do this for you, so you'll want to vet them like any other vendor that you're using.

Sometimes, though, a property management company might have a less than savory reputation, or worse, they should have that kind of reputation. You've likely heard stories about companies that will line their own pockets by charging more for repairs and pocketing the difference. What about the ones that ignore your tenants until they leave or that don't let you know when rent is missed and fees aren't paid.

There will be some that will do this, but they're not reputable companies and you shouldn't keep them on. You should be able to trust your property management firm without having to watch over their shoulders every second of every day. If you do, you're doing all the work that you would have had to do without them as well as the added work of babysitting them.